State v. Bill P. Marquardt, 2005 WI 157, on certification; prior history: 2001 WI App 219
For Marquardt: John Brinckman; Patricia A. Fitzgerald
Issue/Holding: The search warrant was supported by sufficient “indicia of probable cause” to trigger the good-faith exception, including the following: Marquardt had not been seen for two days following his mother’s homicide, raising suspicion about his absence; the victim was covered in a blanket, raising an inference that the perpetrator was familiar with, and remorseful about, the victim; there was no indication of burglary or sexual assault, suggesting that the victim knew her killer, ¶¶39-44.
To gauge how thin this showing truly was, consider the 2-Justice dissent’s point (¶¶83-84) that the most the supporting affidavits showed was that Marquardt was missing for two days, but that an adult son’s 2-day absence hardly supplies indicia of probable cause that he killed his mother. As to the blanket covering up the body: “The majority cites no study, no peer-reviewed article, no text, not even a TV crime show or an article in a popular magazine to show that such a theory is either legitimate or has gained common knowledge or use,” ¶85. That is, no linkage—none—to Marquardt.
